Domestic violence:

The hidden crime

Anoma Jayawardena

VIOLENCE: Too often domestic violence is a crime that is hidden away, but we are determined to bring it out into the open and tackle its root causes.

Domestic violence is any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between adults who are or have been in a relationship together, or between family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.

Domestic violence is about power and control. The Perpetrator denies his partner's right to disagree with him and uses abusive strategies to dominate and control her.

Domestic violence is a common social problem. Though it has been showing a declining trend in high status families. All women with lower socio-economic status are facing this problem everyday of their lives. The main aggtressor is the spouse.

The harmful effects caused by the violence, include not only physical but also mental consequences.

Physical abuse (e.g. punching, hitting, slapping, shoving, choking and use of weapons against her)

Sexual abuse or rape

Emotional and psychological abuse (e.g. demeaning her in public, humiliating her, making comments designed to make her feel worthless, threatening to injure her)

Social abuse (e.g. depriving her of contact with friends or relatives, constantly following her and monitoring her movements)

Despite common myths, domestic violence occurs in families irrespective of nationality, religion, race or employment. Most of the victims are women, although a small number of men also suffer often follows a pattern as illustrated in the Cycle of abuse above.

The cycle moves from a build up of tension to an explosion of abuse. This is followed by feelings of remorse on behalf of the perpetrator. He may even try to "buy back" her affection and trust with promises and gifts. A period of relative calm may follow but the tension soon builds again.

As this cycle gains momentum, his power over her increases and her capacity to escape decreases. It is this control that violent men achieve over women that frequently traps them in violent relationship.

Whatever form it takes, domestic violence is rarely a one-off incident. More usually it's a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour through which the abuser seeks power over their victim.

Domestic violence occurs across society, regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality, wealth and geography. The figures show, however, that it consists mainly of violence by men against women.

Victims of domestic violence suffer on many levels - health, housing, education - and lose the freedom to live their lives how they want, and without fear.

We aim to support victims of domestic violence with a range of new measures.

How can domestic violence and abuse be prevented or treated?

Treatment programmes

It has been difficult to craft programmes that successfully help abusers or potential abusers stop the cycle of domestic violence. There has been greater success in developing programmes that criminalize domestic violence or offer shelter and support to victims of domestic abuse. Initial treatment programmes for abusers focused on anger management, but research indicates that anger management is not the problem.

Most abusers can control their anger toward other people or in public. But they feel justified in aiming their anger toward their intimate partner at home. Thus, the current focus is on changing the abuser's attitude toward women.

A domestic violence shelter is a building or set of apartments where victims of domestic violence can go to seek refuge from their abusers.

A family might also host a victim of domestic violence in their home in return for a small stipend from the domestic violence agency.

The location of the shelter is kept confidential from the public, and each visitor must also keep the location private.

Basic living needs will be provided for by the domestic violence agency for a short time.

The length of time that the victim can stay at the shelter is limited, but there are usually resources to help victims find permanent homes.

Shelters are primarily for women, as the number of men who are physically endangered by a woman is limited. Shelters generally have room for mothers and their children.